ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,280,401, issued on April 22, was assigned to Tompkins Robotics Inc. (Orlando, Fla.).
"Sequencing parcel sorter" was invented by James M. Serstad (Raleigh, N.C.) and Michael C. Futch (Raleigh, N.C.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Method of sorting articles to a plurality of delivery routes includes sequencing a plurality of delivery stops within each of a plurality of routes based on a predefined criterion, and, depositing articles associated with a first delivery stop of each route in a first sequence container. The method also includes transferring articles from the first sequence container to a respective route container of a plurality o...